TOPIC: More tokens, less trading

<br />Only one left...+2 Dread Sword I think.<br />

<br /><br />Only one left to give away?  You'll have more PM's than you know what to do with  =D

hmmm, I think I know how to avoid that...

Wow, sign me up for that list... =D<br /><br />

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<br />I've traded 3 PURPS this year as well as a few odd trades for PLATS and stuff to help others...<br /><br />But I'd agree, trading it seems is quieting down a tad.<br />

<br /><br />Oh and I gave away 2 PURPS too!<br />

Could part of the lull be that people are sending their tokens back to TDHQ to get trade items?

I've never traded on the forums in the past, but since TR I've completed 4 and have 2 more in the mail right now.  I'm good with single token trades or blocks.  It doesn't matter to me.

I also have noticed less trading than in previous years.<br /><br />My theory is that most of us have a lot more tokens than we used to, so the marginal benefit of a particular trade is significantly less. We've filled a lot of the major gaps in our collections/wants, so there are fewer high priority trades. When you have a dozen tokens, trading just one can be quite exciting. When you already have hundred or thousands, getting one new token (except possibly Purps and really rare stuff) isn't quite so thrilling any more.<br /><br />For me, in many cases, smaller-scale trades for commons/uncommons usually aren't even worth the postage or the time/effort required. The gradual buildup of my inventory also means that I don't care too much about most reds anymore. It's like what was mentioned about everyone focusing on Purps nowadays. People are just getting pickier (or perhaps just savvier) when it comes to trading.<br /><br />The influx of bulk retailer/individual sellers, plus the surge of eBay auctions, has also probably influenced things. (Oftentimes, it may be easier to just buy a token outright rather than spend the time to craft out a perfectly "fair" trade).<br /><br />One possibly useful statistic is to track whether most of the trades are among newbies or old timers.

I notice that VERY few people are completing sets, compared to past years.  A year or two ago there was a real competition to get PLATs for sets, now it seems only a couple of people are completing PLAT sets.  That is one reason there's a lot less trading. 

here is a thought... people were ordering tokens and then trading off the excess to get what they needed/wanted. as the size of the orders increased, trading declined because folks were getting what they wanted/needed in their order.<br /><br />this is just a thought, but it makes sense.  :|

<br /> here is a thought... people were ordering tokens and then trading off the excess to get what they needed/wanted. as the size of the orders increased, trading declined because folks were getting what they wanted/needed in their order.<br /><br />this is just a thought, but it makes sense.  :|<br />

<br /><br />That does make sense.  The same thing happened with Magic: The Gathering.  Early on there was a lot of trading; then people started buying carts by the box, and there were fewer cards they needed to trade for.